From the age of eleven, Sajan Raj Kurup was obsessed with the idea of starting his own country. Twenty years on, he realized his dream.
Raj started dabbling with work from the age of 13. A newspaper boy in his summer holidays, an animal caretaker, a spoken English tutor, a pizza maker, a sales guy, a stage actor, a masseur and a bartender. Finally, after completing his Honors Degree in Mathematical Economics and proudly dropping out of Business School, he settled for a career in creativity. In an advertising career that spans nearly 16 years Raj has worked in six countries in Asia and Europe at Mudra (DDB), Leo Burnett, Orchard, Lowe and Grey before founding Creativeland Asia.
Raj’s office resembles that of a metallurgist’s with over 280 awards from The One Show, D&AD, AdFest, Spikes Asia, Cannes Lions, Goafest, Creativity Annual, London International Awards and New York Festivals among others. He’s rated among the top ten creative people in India and the hottest creative people in Asia. Creativeland was recently awarded a place on the Cannes Shortlist for its work with Parle Agros’ Hippo snack brand, which uses Twitter to turn consumers into inventory trackers.
Raj is a believer in young talent. He loves interacting with students and learning from them. He’s been invited to motivate and speak at many institutions, companies and colleges in India and abroad. In fact, he has just set upyoungcreative.org, the student arm of Creativeland Asia to promote new talent and give them international exposure.